Egeria's Secrets
by mulberrychoc
Summary: AU - The Pangaran's did not force Egeria to breed and someone other than Ra knew where Ra had hidden her. Begins around the middle of Season 1 of SG1, chapters currently alternate between Egeria vs. the SGC. Characters: OC Egeria, Heru'ur, Rosha Jolinar and OC SG-7 team, all of SG-1, Ferretti, Hammond, Frasier, other SGC members.
1. Chapter 1

**Egeria's Secrets**

Chapter 1

* * *

 _AU - The Pangaran's did not force Egeria to breed and someone other than Ra knew where Ra had hidden her. Begins around the middle of Season 1 of SG1._

* * *

When Ra tore her from her host and forced her into a stasis jar, Egeria's strength was sorely depleted and her pain nearly unbearable. She had no regrets; she was Tok'ra, she would defy him and his to her last breath.

Stasis, by its very nature, denies any sense of the passage of time so when Egeria returned to consciousness, she had no concept of just how long she had been locked away. Her surroundings contributed to her initial disorientation: she could note sense any symbiote in the ones who tended her, and the tank she had been dumped into was far from ideal.

As the days passed, instead of recovering her strength, she found herself slowly weakening. The water was kept a little too warm for comfort; it's composition was suboptimal. There were trace nutrients missing from her diet. Days became weeks and then months. She was subjected to endless tests, ranging from her recovery from physical injuries to her immunity to a myriad of viruses and bacterial infections in her water, in her food and at times even injected directly into her body. They also experimented with various chemicals, watching and recording her every response.

Through all this time, she sensed not a single other symbiote and the loneliness tormented her.

* * *

Eventually, the humans around Egeria had relaxed enough to speak in her hearing and thus, she gradually pieced together that this planet had once worshipped Ra, that he had been gone for a very long time and she herself had been found in a hidden room inside the ruins of Ra's temple. They presumed she was goa'uld of course, and Egeria could not blame them for that. How were they to know otherwise? Yet that changed nothing and in her misery, Egeria contemplated the lure of ending herself and therefore her pain. She did not - could not - give in but she longed fervently for rescue, for a host to love and be loved by.

* * *

 _Beware what you wish for_. Many, many cultures voice such a warning and Egeria was irresistibly reminded of them when _he_ came. She had known something was wrong of course, the place in which she was imprisoned had vibrated in the shock waves of explosions, and no one had brought her food or come to record her condition. But when she felt the distant tingle of many symbiotes, dread took root. If her people came with such violence, they must have changed beyond her recognition, and the only other possibility was the goa'uld.

Peeking over the edge of her tank, she saw the terrified scientist lead the Horus guards into the room, and she saw _him_. Heru'ur approached her tank and looked down at her, his expression filled with contempt - and pleasure. Egeria hissed at him, expressing her opinion in the succinct way their native language required. Heru'ur's hand came down; she twisted sideways but in her now severely weakened state, she could not evade him. She thrashed helplessly as she heard Heru'ur direct his jaffa to find a small tank in which to transport her and when the tank was ready and he thrust her into it, she grabbed an opportunity and sank her fangs into the soft flesh of his arm.

He shook her off casually and as the jaffa secured the tank's lid, he inspected the flesh-wound she had inflicted. **"You will pay for that,"** he remarked with a smirk of anticipation. **"Jaffa – kree!"** He turned to leave, and the jaffa carried her tank a precise two steps behind him all the way to the chappa'ai. With the sharp - if colourblind - vision of a symbiote she studied what she could see of this planet. They appeared to have been moderately advanced but they had had no chance against goa'uld weaponry and despite her own suffering, she grieved for the many dead.

They stepped through the chappa'ai to a planet that appeared uninhabited. It took several minutes before a temple came into view. Highly rustic and in some disrepair, Egeria gazed at it dully. Confined to a too-small tank, hungry and exhausted, she knew not what she could do. Her tank was carried in but she could see little as the jaffa crowded round and blocked her view. Heru'ur was speaking, he was annoyed. Egeria couldn't make out the words through the muffling effect of the tank. Then they were moving again and she caught a glimpse of three humans, two flat on the floor, hiding their faces and one stoically enduring a beating - a mild one by jaffa standards.

Egeria was carried through into the inner sanctum and again, the jaffa blocked her view. She heard the distinctive sound of the kara-kesh and as soon as it ceased, her tank was opened and Heru'ur yanked her out. He held her before a young, dark haired woman, dressed like the men in the previous room and her blank, dazed expression evidence enough that she was not here by choice. Egeria recoiled; her revulsion at the idea of taking someone unwilling suppressing the survival instincts that screamed her physical need for a host.

 **"Egeria, blend with her or I will kill her here and now. Each and every host you refuse to blend with, I shall kill."** Heru'ur's soft threat was entirely sincere and chillingly indifferent.

It was a wretched, bitter choice and she chose life.

* * *

It was Zoe's first encounter with a ribbon device and a hundred disparate thoughts scurried though her mind as she fought both panic and the flood of dizzying pain. The room around her vanished in a haze of red and she hung in a semi-conscious stupor. It was broken by a stab of pain in her throat and the peculiar sensation of something slithering into her. Panic spiked and brought with it a new surge of adrenalin. _No, no, NOOO!_ she screamed silently, nausea biting her gut and the knowledge of her utter helplessness shredding the little whisper of hope she'd retained. Abruptly, the physical sensations cut off and she felt her body move under another control. Black misery choked her for a long moment before a wash of emotion knocked it away. Compassion, sorrow, regrets, desperation, caring; it was all a tangle.

 _**I am so, so sorry.**_ Egeria told her new host, anguished at the distress she was causing – and dreading the pain to come. Looking up at Heru'ur, she carefully kept her mask of icy contempt intact as she met his gaze with an arrogant glare of her own.

 _**What?**_ Zoe was… discombobulated.

 _**To take a host against their will is a despicable act, but I had to choose between doing so or seeing Heru'ur kill you.**_

 _**I don't want to die!**_

Egeria did not want to die either. She tried to block her host from feeling it as Heru'ur hit her but could not. ** _I hope we will not.**_

Zoe flinched mentally at the sharp pain of the blow washed over her. ** _What – who are you?**_ she asked warily.

The answer Egeria needed to give was much more than words could convey so in response, she let down the block between her mind and memories and that of her host.

* * *

Egeria did not break. Five days of unrelenting torture before he miscalculated slightly and killed them; they woke in a sarcophagus on a different world, in the heart of one of Heru'ur's strongholds. Again they were tortured, and they endured because they could do nothing else. Yet even in such horror, they had each other. From such an uncertain beginning, Egeria had not thought Zoe would forgive her, but her host had done so.

 _**Are you wallowing in guilt again?**_ came the sleepy question as Zoe woke.

 _**I cannot forget you did not choose this.**_

Zoe was silent, thinking in her 'private room' as Egeria termed it. ** _I did choose to join my people's fight against the goa'uld. No, I did not choose this specific situation but I did choose the risk of unknown possibilities._ _I wish we were not enduring_ this _but I do not – cannot – regret blending with you.**_


	2. Chapter 2

**Egeria's Secrets**

Chapter 2

* * *

 _A/N: To my reviewers, favouriters and followers, thank you!_  
 _This chapter follows happenings at the SGC. I intend to alternate between Egeria and the Tok'ra and the SGC, at least until they cross paths again. For reference, SG-8 was never mentioned on the TV screen, so here it is composed of my OCs: Major Chad Bennet (CO), Lt. Tim Angelo, Lt. Finn and Dr. Bretley. They'll make cameo appearances here and there. Zoe's full name is Zoe Jones and Riverton is another scientist. I am posting as I write, and while I have an overall plot mapped out (the Secrets of the title. ;)), I don't have a detailed outline and I am not sure how long this will all take. There will be hints of Sam/Jack in later chapters although I'm not sure it will go beyond UST._  
 _Please note that I do not have a beta and any/all mistakes are mine alone. I'm happy to have any typos or similar pointed out._

* * *

Major Chad Bennet sat on the infirmary bed, staring at nothing. It wasn't the wall he saw – it was the memories of P3C-461. A touch on his shoulder snapped him out of it and he lifted his gaze to see Colonel O'Neill. "Sir," he managed stiffly.

"Major." Jack's expression was grave and he didn't hide the sympathy in it. "You've been cleared to leave the infirmary – they're waiting for you in the briefing room."

Chad flushed slightly and nodded. "Yes, sir." He stood with some care as his cracked ribs still twinged, and walked silently beside the Colonel on the way to the debriefing where he had to say what happened. How he'd lost someone.

It had been a routine mission for them at the start; there was an apparently abandoned temple to document and the remnants of a small crashed ship to take apart. Others had evidently been there before them – there was little beyond the shell of the broken hull left – but it had still been of interest. They'd had an extra pair of boffins with them, but Jones and Riverton had been on several missions and were quite reasonable, really. SG-8 had never gotten themselves into any trouble before.

They had been there two days when the jaffa arrived; sixty of them if their rough count was accurate. Lt. Finn and Riverton had been down by the ship and had successfully hidden there; the rest of them had been taken prisoner and held in the outer room of the temple. A few hours later, Heru'ur had arrived, with another dozen jaffa. He had barely spoken to them; his gaze had lingered on Zoe Jones before ordering her to be brought to the inner room with him.

Chad wearily admitted he'd objected to Zoe being taken and in response, the jaffa had punished him.

After the beating, the three remaining prisoners had been shoved into a small storage room and ignored. It had only been a short time later that they'd first heard Zoe. They couldn't hear her well with two walls between them; certainly they didn't know what had been happening. But they heard her screaming.

When they had been late for a scheduled contact, the SGC had dialled them. The jaffa hadn't taken their radios and Lt. Finn and Riverton were still free so they all had spoken over the radio to earth and reported the situation. Unfortunately, due to the number of jaffa present, a rescue had been problematic, although they had worked on a plan. But before the plan could be implemented, Heru'ur and his jaffa had left.

They'd taken Zoe – or possibly Zoe's body – with them.

When they were gone and Finn had freed the prisoners, they had searched the temple and found bloodstains on the floor in the inner temple, and small, empty tank.

"We believe, sir, that the tank was the right size to transport a goa'uld. Which leads us to the conclusion that Zoe was made a host so that the goa'uld could be questioned. After we searched the temple, we gathered our gear and came home."

Hammond was silent for several long seconds before he met the gaze of SG-8's CO. Major Bennet's tired, stoic expression was etched with the pain and guilt of any good officer in such a situation. Zoe had been well liked on the base, and her starkly bleak fate was a sobering reminder of the risk of stepping through the gate, even to apparently 'safe' worlds. "Do we have any idea where Heru'ur went?"

"No, sir. Finn and Riverton were not close enough to see the address."

"Understood. SG-8, dismissed." Hammond stood and started for his office. "Colonel, with me."

Behind the closed door, Hammond and Jack went over what they'd heard, looking for any possibilities. Aside from including Zoe on the list of people to watch for, there did not appear to be anything they could do and the helplessness grated on them both.

* * *

Afterwards, Jack turned his steps towards the science labs and as he expected, Sam was there, meticulously taking apart some new gizmo. "Carter."

"Sir?"

"No explosions today?"

Sam looked up finally, her blue, blue eyes a little red. "No, sir."

"Not even a little pfft?"

Sam shook her head. "Dr. Bretley just came up and told us all he knew. We already knew it was bad, but… I don't think anyone believed she wouldn't be rescued until they came home without her."

Jack finally moved out of the doorway and came over to pick up some small, shiny thing from the bench. "Everyone liked her."

"Yes, sir. I don't think she let anyone close, but she was liked. She'd notice the little things that mattered and she remembered them. She was… she'll be missed."

"We haven't given up. Not on Zoe, or Sha're, or Skaara."

"No, sir."

The sombre mood of the base hung over everyone like a cloud for a few days but life at the SGC kept going. Sam had to spend a bit more time soothing ruffled egos in her department and Daniel had to put a bit more time into 'translating' between his department of anthropologists and their interpretation of a piece of tech versus what Sam's department came up with. Dr. Bretley missed the way Zoe had teased him about his pink love-heart patterned coffee mug and Chad missed her knack for turned technobabble into a succinct layman's explanation.

Zoe had shared an apartment with one of the nurses, so it was straightforward to pack her things and put them into storage. Her next of kin was a sister who was currently working as a nurse in war torn Africa and out of touch. It was all very tidy.

* * *

Due to the shuffling of mission assignments after SG-8's encounter with Heru'ur, SG-4 was assigned the mission to P3X-974 and made contact with the Cimmerians. To say their report caused a sensation was an understatement: for the first time, they had truly found something to give Earth hope. SG-1 (minus Teal'c) accompanied SG-4 on a return trip and spoke directly to Kendra, the former goa'uld host who was living proof of what Thor's Hammer could do. The Asgard remained a mystery, but just knowing there was an advanced race out there capable of and willing to oppose the goa'uld was a boost to everyone's morale.


	3. Chapter 3

**Egeria's Secrets**

Chapter 3

* * *

 _A/N: Sorry it's taken so long to get this out! My muse kept wanting to play with other stories and I failed to discipline it._

* * *

Heru'ur studied the arrangement of weapons adorning the walls of his audience hall as he considered how to answer this insult. It had to be sufficient without raising undue suspicion – a tricky balance when it came to Ba'al in particular. The minutes trickled past and as his gaze fell back on the jaffa messenger, a faint smile crossed his expression. Taking up one of his _sageris_ , he casually decapitated the messenger. **"** **Return the head through the chaapa'ai,"** he instructed his first prime. **"** **No reply is needed."**

Once the mess was cleared, he sat and reviewed his options. He held the Eye of Osiris; a gift from Ra when Osiris had been banished. He knew where the Eye of Ra was hidden; he would retrieve it soon. He only needed one more! **"** **One more - and the diadem,"** he murmured softly.

"My Lord?"

" **Fetch my prisoner."**

* * *

Egeria hid her dread behind resignation as the jaffa came and dragged her from the cell. She and Zoe had had some days reprieve – they'd treasured the peace and spent time deepening their blending. Knowing that she could now properly protect her host from what they were enduring was little comfort but Egeria would take whatever she could in that line. Expecting to be brought to the same torture chamber that they had seen before, her alertness snapped up a notch when they were escorted out of the heavily fortified dungeon for the first time.

The audience hall was empty but Egeria was forced to her knees in front of the throne anyway. ** _Heru'ur's taste hasn't changed in sixteen hundred years! Even Ra sometimes got bored in that length of time! **_ Zoe recalled a raspberry sound in reply.

Egeria hid her desire to giggle – it was, after all, entirely incompatible with dignity! However, her Zoe's irreverence was deeply refreshing. She heard the sound of footsteps and stilled her expression.

Heru'ur paused beside her and ran a finger down the nape of her neck. **"** **Are you going to give me what I want?"**

" **Never."**

" **Ah, well then..."** he murmured before holding a small device to the base of her skull and activating it.

Zoe had felt more pain in the last few weeks than she had ever imagined could exist. She had _died_ several times over. This was new. The device stabbed half a dozen needles through her skin and into the symbiote. Egeria screamed in their mind; _screamed_ in agonised fear.

Then there was silence.

Horrible silence.

Her frantic breathing, her racing heartbeat. They echoed in Zoe's mind as she reached for Egeria and found nothing. Aware that instead of kneeling, she was now sprawled on the polished stone floor, she forced herself to open her eyes and see. Heru'ur was still standing there, smirking at her panic.

" **I admit, I don't usually bother with questioning Tok'ra – they are even more stubborn than goa'uld. But if one can't break the symbiote half, that still leaves the host. Of course,** **if they weren't so absurdly...** **twisted that they** ** _share_** **their minds with their hosts, there wouldn't be any point. Goa'uld hosts know nothing.** ** _Tok'ra_** **hosts, however..."**

* * *

Jolinar and Rosha had not intended to linger in Heru'ur's domain but given his hostility to the ashrakin, they had hoped their tracker would hesitate long enough for the trail to be muddled. But Heru'ur had returned unexpectedly and forbidden anyone without his personal authorisation from using the chaapa'ai, trapping them here. It was annoying, but on the positive side, there was no sign that the ashrak had been able to penetrate Heru'ur's unexpected lockdown.

Most minor goa'uld here were held in tightly circumscribed roles; anything that _could_ safely be done by jaffa _was_. Jolinar had found a (precarious) niche amongst the lowest ranking but it was almost more hindrance than help. Since the chaapa'ai was beyond reach, she needed a ship and her current 'position' did not give her casual access to them.

But Jolinar did not _ever_ give up. She had far more experience and knowledge than most of the goa'uld techs and she patiently built an impression in her supervisor's mind that she had a knack for cloaking technology. Eventually, she would be assigned to work on a teltak that had a cloaking device fitted and she could quietly disappear.

* * *

Zoe knew exactly what Egeria had done with Ra's diadem and she knew she would eventually say it out loud. Thinking up outrageous, nonsensical or plausible answers to Heru'ur's questions was a poor distraction but it was also all she had.

"Hid in Marge's hair," earned her another dozen lashes.

"She sold it to a Hutt on Tatooine," got her several broken ribs.

"Tossed it into a volcano on Vulcan," made Heru'ur pause for a few (too few!) seconds before reactivating the 'cattle prod on steroids'.

Heru'ur, though strict, was not usually capricious in his dealings with his underlings but when his temper was poor – as it was right now – no goa'uld was going to bring him bad news if they could avoid it. Thus, the task of bringing him some not-good-reports about the progress of repairing his battle-damaged flagship was passed down the line until it reached Jolinar's lap. She was annoyed but this was one of the prices to be paid for taking the role of someone of the lowest ranks. When Jolinar was escorted into Heru'ur's presence, she was obliged to wait. Glancing ever so briefly towards the woman he was torturing, she felt a flicker of relief that she was a stranger even as she fed her rage at the sight into her unbreakable commitment to the Tok'ra cause.

Heru'ur was annoyed and wondering if he'd made a mistake by using an ignorant trespasser instead of a properly trained slave to be Egeria's host. He had never encountered such ridiculous stubbornness! How had Egeria managed to subvert the human so fast? Studying her for a moment, he signalled the jaffa, who hauled her off the floor and onto her broken feet. **"** ** _You_** **can have no reason for such defiance,"** he said mildly. **"** **Give me what I want and you can choose your reward."**

Zoe looked at him through the haze of pain and exhaustion before answering, her voice hoarse and shaky. "And if the reward I choose is to have _you_ dead at my feet?" Her contempt and hatred showed in every bitter word.

His eyes flashed in anger and taking up a small serrated dagger, he stabbed her in the gut and smiled at her screams.

She felt her life slipping away and wished it would be the end. She knew it would not be and drawing on the last bitter dregs of strength, she spat the words that had come to define her in this hell: _"_ _Arik tree'ac te kek."_

Heru'ur's expression tightened again, irritably gesturing to the jaffa to remove her to the sarcophagus before he turned a narrow-eyes glare on the unfamiliar goa'uld waiting with a tablet and data crystal.

Jolinar kept up the facade; she handed over the report and when Heru'ur took it and curtly dismissed her, she wasted no time. Once out of the room, instead of taking the route back to her duties, she took another path, down to the mundane area of 'kitchens, stores and laundry'. The jaffa took little notice and soon as she was free of prying eyes, she hid. Jolinar's plans had to change now – she still did not know who the prisoner was - but she knew they were Tok'ra.


	4. Chapter 4

**Egeria's Secrets**

Chapter 4

* * *

 _A/N: This chapter is back at the SGC and re-writes the episode Fire and Water. Some of the dialogue, particularly from Hammond, SG-1 and Frasier, is directly copied from the episode transcripts, however, I tried to duplicate as little possible. I apologize if it's too hard to follow without rewatching the episode or reading a transcript.  
The next chapter returns to Zoe. __And yeah, Zoe and the SCG will cross paths again... soon.  
_

* * *

 _Something_ was setting off Chad's hinky sense. He wasn't going to compare the loss of scientist who hadn't been part of his team and had only been on three assignments with him to the loss of Dr Jackson from SG1 but there was still something off about Colonel O'Neill and Captain Carter's reactions. Teal'c, he wouldn't presume to read. He retreated from the infirmary and caught Major Louis Ferretti's eye; in non-verbal agreement, the two men headed for the commissary. Coffee wasn't the drink either of them wanted but it would do and the place was empty enough to give them a choice of tables.

Louis broke the silence first. "I can't believe it."

"That Dr Jackson is dead or that things went down like SG1 are saying?" Chad stared down at his coffee not really seeing it.

"Either. Maybe both." Louis spoke softly, carefully. "Did you hear them say they'd only been on the planet half an hour?"

Chad's eyes narrowed slightly. "Nope… didn't they head out at 0700 this morning?"

"Yep, and got back at 1050."

"Hinky."

"They just about freaked out when someone asked about going back for the body. The colonel just about yelled that there was nothing left." Louis met Chad's gaze and they both shook their heads.

"No way."

"Definitely hinky."

Silence fell again as they thought it through.

"The general is on the ball. He'll see it."

Chad shrugged. He had a lot of respect for General Hammond but he hadn't got one of the nine slots of SG team leader by letting things slide. "I'm still gonna go have a word with him. You?"

"Nah… you speak for both of us. I'll go see if Doc Frasier's let Jack out yet, see what he says."

* * *

General Hammond was in the briefing room paging through the initial reports from the planet while an airman finished setting up and checking a camera. He looked up when Chad walked in. "Major Bennet. Is there something I can do for you?"

"Not exactly, sir. I was just talking with Ferretti about SG1."

Hammond's expression tightened slightly.

"We both saw SG1 in the infirmary. And we've got nothing concrete to point at but something is not right."

" _Not right?_ " Hammond echoed sharply before hauling his temper back under control. He knew these men; knew this would have come from care and not disrespect. "Explain yourself, Major."

Chad met his CO's eyes as calmly as he could manage. It was pretty calm. "In the infirmary, Ferretti heard one of them say something to the effect of only being away half an hour, and that, sir, does not make sense when they were gone nearly four hours. Beyond that, Colonel O'Neill spent some time talking with me after we lost Zoe. His reactions, such that I observed, just don't fit." He took a deep breath, looking away for a moment before continuing. "Ferretti said they nearly freaked out at the idea of going back to that planet. If SG1's been compromised, if their memory of what happened has been altered, then we can't rely on their report of what happened to Dr Jackson. Sir."

" _General!"_ Jack strode into the room, his face flushed with anger, glaring at Chad. "We _saw_ it happen – we heard Daniel yell for help! What the _hell_ is he insinuating?"

Chad shifted under Jack's look but kept quiet; Hammond's curt dismissal was a relief and having no more to say – or any wish to get further involved – he got out.

Hammond just shook his head at Jack and told him to sit down. "Debrief first, discussion when we have it all recorded."

They started with Teal'c's comparatively succinct report. Sam was second and Hammond finished with Jack. With the questions raised by Chad, Hammond took care not to contradict anything SG1 said, although he did clarify that they did indeed believe they had only been gone a half hour or less. At the end, he made a careful, deliberate statement. "We'll send a team through to recover the body."

"No sir!" Jack's almost shouted as he lurched from dazed misery to wild-eyed alarm, almost bouncing out of his seat in agitation.

"No!" Teal'c spoke loudly a half second later.

Sam's head shot up and she chimed in with a distraught sounding, "Sir, we can't do that!"

"It's…too volatile, sir. The whole area was…very unstable." Jack was almost babbling.

Hammond looked at them and the silence echoed for a few very long seconds. He had no doubts anymore that there was definitely something amiss here. "Very well. Dismissed." he said at last, making the words as gentle as he could.

Jack, Sam and Teal'c immediately stood and walked out.

When they were gone, Hammond turned to the airman who had been transcribing SG1's report onto a laptop. "I want a copy of that on my desk as soon as you've checked it." Barely registered the soft _yes sir_ she responded with, Hammond got up and walked down the stairs to the observation room.

Dr Janet Frasier was waiting at the bottom of the stairs. "General? I have a few more tests to run, but I've got the results back from my initial exams."

Hammond stopped a few paces into the observation room, a spot that allowed him a good view of currently silent and still stargate below. "And?" he asked Janet.

"Well, except for some minor contusions, uh, photosensitivity , which I can probably blame on exposure to volcanic gasses in the atmosphere…they're fine. Frankly, General, I am more worried about their post-traumatic symptoms."

"Doctor, is there anything _at all_ that you found that was out of place?"

Janet frowned slightly. "Nothing physical," she answered slowly. "But their mental state."

"Exactly," Hammond said heavily. "Dr Frasier, they are missing hours from their memory of events, more than three hours at least. They all said they'd only been gone half an hour at the most. On top of that, they reacted with uncharacteristic extreme disturbance to the idea of returning to P3X-866. Of anyone returning there."

She blinked and looked away, looked at the stargate for a moment. "I classified the reaction to going back as part of the post-traumatic symptoms. But… I need to run some more tests." She had one foot on the stairs when Hammond's permission to run whatever tests she needed registered. A quick smile and she was gone.

Hammond sighed and looked across the room. "Harriman," he said, spotting the sergeant. "Which teams are available right now? SG-4, SG2-? SG-7… no, Finn isn't cleared yet."

"Yes sir. Also SG-5 was due to head out at 1400."

"Someone get Major Ferretti to my office."

* * *

SG-1 were ensconced in the infirmary and oblivious to the departure of SG-2 for P3X-866.

Dr Mackenzie had been called in when all Janet's tests still showed nothing physical; he suggested trying hypnosis and after leading Sam through just one session, the memory-block collapsed. Just after Jack and Teal'c had made it through the process, the _Unscheduled Off-world Activation_ klaxons began sounding and SG-1 got to the gateroom in time to greet the returning half of SG-2.

The first thing Lt Casey said upon sighting SG-1 was "We found Dr Jackson, he's alive and well."

After that, the report of an aquatic alien holding Dr Jackson and the request for any information about Omoroca of ancient Babylon was rather anti-climatic. The anthropology department of the SGC turned up several references describing _Omoroca_ and what happened to her within the hour; SG-2 took copies of everything they had back with them and then came home – with Daniel – in time for dinner.

When Daniel explained that it was Teal'c's presence that had motivated Nem's actions, the consequences of having a jaffa on a front-line team were re-examined. In the end, SG-1 remained as they were – General Hammond insisted on it, for no clear reason that anyone would understand until more than a year later.


	5. Chapter 5

**Egeria's Secrets**

Chapter 5

* * *

 _A/N: For some reason, the upload of chapter 4 resulted in an error and didn't notify people there was a new chapter. So if you're here from an update notice, please check that you didn't miss reading chapter 4.  
Also, this chapter is longer. I know. It just worked out that way. I do have an overall plan but this _is _a work-in-progress. I'm doing my best not to contradict myself but if I miss something, please let me know.  
_

* * *

Tok'ra operatives did not get caught very often. When they _were_ , the rule was to never, ever count on being rescued. That wasn't to say the Tok'ra didn't mount rescues; they did. It was just that they would not do so unless they had an acceptable chance of success, with 'acceptable chance' frequently being the debated point.

Jolinar's idea of 'acceptable chance' did not usually match that of most of the Tok'ra.

However, right now, even she had to admit her odds of rescuing Heru'ur's prisoner were not particularly good. She'd taken the risk of going 'AWOL' from the job she'd acquired, hoping that, since the last task her supervisor had set her was to deliver bad news to the lord himself, it would be assumed she had been a casualty of his temper. Given Heru'ur showed no sign of removing his lock on the chappa'ai, her only option was to leave by ship.

This world was the center of Heru'ur's domain; it was heavily fortified and defended. There were four motherships in orbit, a dozen alkesh and a hefty number of teltacs being used for the business of governing his empire. All flight capable ships were watched, tracked, guarded. The flight paths for the teltacs were limited and any movement not pre-approved generally resulted in the offending craft being blasted out of the sky. Additionally, a network of lasers laced the sky, tuned to detect any evidence of a cloaked ship attempting to sneak in… or out.

It presented a challenge. Jolinar had intended to get herself assigned to fix one of those teltac and then flee during a test flight. That was no longer an option. It was possible she could hide on one and hijack it after it had left orbit but only if she was leaving alone. Finally, there was the junkyard. Teltacs in particular were not a reliable design; there was no redundancy in their systems. It was, therefore, normal that there was four of them sitting in the junkyard, waiting to be broken up for parts. They were unguarded and had no drive crystals between them, but Jolinar spent a long, stressful night piecing together a working cloak. Unfortunately, the only one that still had a set of rings also had a badly damaged life support system.

 _**Jolinar.**_

Pulling the drive crystals from a pair of broken-winged death gliders and modifying the teltac's drive to accept tandem pairs instead of single crystals was demented. The teltac would be overpowered, insanely touchy to pilot at speed. _**Rosha.**_ she answered her host absently.

 _**We don't have a death wish. Really.**_

 _**Ummm…**_ Jolinar set the last connection in place and shut the panel with slow, exhausted, care. _Any better ideas?_

A soft, wordless huff was Rosha's initial response. _**I just… I want to go home and stay there for a while.**_ Unspoken, the longing for the company and comfort for their mates twined through the words.

Caught off guard by something they both normally kept under tight regulation when on a mission, Jolinar wrapped her Rosha in an intangible hug. _**Dearling. What brought this on?**_

 _**I don't know. Just a feeling… I'm still not convinced we've gotten away from the ashrak. If you're finished with that?**_

 _**Yes. Time to move.**_ She did not bother reminding Rosha that they had come _here_ , to a goa'uld stronghold the Tok'ra normally avoided because Heru'ur had forbidden the ashrakin from the place. It wouldn't stop it; only the lock on the chaapa'ai had.

In the dark, no one noticed when one junked teltac shimmered and vanished. Jolinar eased it up into the air and told Rosha to stop holding her breath, it was distracting. The laser network was extensive but Jolinar had mapped out as much as she could and she wove a path around them. It took them hours to cover a distance that would need less than five minutes direct flight, but just before dawn, she finally finagled it into the spot she chosen. Above the roof of one section of the stronghold, barely close enough for the rings to work and the nose pointed at the invisible exit path she'd have to negotiate to avoid detection.

It was a good thing she was a damn good pilot.

She snapped the bracelet with a ring-control and door-control remotes on her wrist; she'd reprogrammed the teltac to only answer to _her_ several days ago. Switching off the interior lights, she eased the back door open and let down a thin rope. Sliding down, she landed with the slightest of thuds; a moment of flicking the rope and it came free, to be coiled and hidden. The door was shut, and Jolinar was on her way.

For days, Jolinar stayed hidden. It wasn't _too_ hard; no one was looking for her. Twice she caught glimpses of the prisoner, but information about her was non-existent. There was no useful gossip; only the highest ranking jaffa had any contact with her. Patiently, Jolinar mapped where Heru'ur questioned her – when it wasn't the torture chamber by the cells, it was usually his audience hall, and the latter had a number of places to hide. Thus, she was tucked away in an alcove with an excellent view – well hidden, but unable to move, watching first some mundane business and then, at last, when the prisoner was brought in again.

* * *

Zoe sat in the corner of the cell, staring at her hands. He'd flayed the skin off them, stomped them into raw and broken bits and the cursed golden box had put them back together. Just _how_ did it work? The exact pattern of whirls and curves that made her fingerprints unique was not genetic; studies of identical twins had proven that. And there hadn't been any skin left for the sarcophagus to work from. Yet somehow, _somehow_ , it had restored them. Exactly as they had been before. _And how many people, Zoe, study their own fingertips enough to know if their fingerprints are changed or not?_ It was an inane thing to be thinking of, in the circumstances.

She wasn't sure if being healed by the sarcophagus made it easier to cope or not. On the one hand, the relief from the pain was a powerful restorative in and of itself. On the other hand, it meant there were no limits. He didn't have to be careful of her. He could do anything to her, over and over again. Forever.

Three times she and Egeria had woken in that cursed box together; three times Zoe had woken alone.

They'd _blended._ From separate beings with separate minds, they'd merged and melded until they were more _one_ than _two._ But then Heru'ur had silenced half of them and left Zoe reft and bereft and lost. She was thinking in english again. She couldn't say when she'd stopped but she knew that she had, that Zoe-and-Egeria had thought in goa'uld and even with Egeria mute, Zoe had continued to do so for… a while. It was slipping away now, their blending unravelling. _"_ _Arik tree'ac te kek,"_ she whispered to herself, the words more foreign on her tongue now than they had been when she'd first flung them in Heru'ur's face. _"_ _Tok'ra."_

Egeria _was_ Tok'ra. She'd made her choice somewhere far from here, beneath a violet-tinged sky and a bright blue sun. A choice to reject all she could have had, a life of ease, of pleasure. She'd walked away from her family, dedicated herself to opposing Ra and all he symbolized. Ten times Zoe's lifetime… and Egeria had never faltered.

Her thoughts were interrupted by the arrival of a meal. (Dinner, in her opinion; the alternating meal was similar to oatmeal.) One thick slice of _gan'sa_ , bread-like but denser than any proper bread and made from a high-protein nut. One spoonful of _tolde_ , a paste made from herbs and which Egeria said contained essential trace minerals and vitamins. One handful of roughly chopped fresh leaves which sometimes could pass for a green salad from Earth and sometimes looked impossibly alien. Today was a green-salad day except for the blue-grey-with-orange-veins bits.

It was impossible to get away from how far away from home she was.

* * *

She'd curled up and slept after eating and wasn't sure how many hours of sleep she'd gotten when the jaffa came and took her back to Heru'ur. He'd come close and studied her but it was the way he'd brushed her hair – a tangled mess unwashed by anything more than water – back from her face and put his finger under her chin and tilted it up so she had to meet his gaze that told her something had changed.

" **I think at this point, I will concede that physical pain is not the right motivation for you."**

Zoe's skin prickled. "It motivates me to talk as must as it motivated Egeria," she bit out, drawing strength from the rage that the past weeks had distilled and burned into her soul. It was little enough against the atavistic fear that his flat, cold gaze evoked in her monkey hindbrain.

Heru'ur smiled slightly. **"** **Egeria? Why should** ** _you_** **care what** ** _she_** **thinks?** **"**

"You made me Egeria's host. Did you think she wouldn't share with me _why_ she is Tok'ra?"

" **And for that** ** _you_** **defy me?"**

"Oh no," Zoe answered, jerking her head away from his touch. "For that, you have my _contempt_."

He slapped her, a casual blow that still knocked her to the floor. When she had picked herself up, he stepped back and set a small device on the nearby table, watching her avidly as he activated it.

Light flared and coalesced into an image, a six-foot hologram of a planet in the most beautiful blues and greens of the universe. It turned slowly, the continents terrifying familiar and as it's dark side slid into view, Zoe could see the delicate, breathtaking sparkle of human-made lights marking out just how much of Earth was inhabited. Currently inhabited. She couldn't breathe.

" **When Ra was gone, there were many claims made on worlds he had once ruled. Some were undisputed… others not. However, _this_ planet was claimed by Apophis and, at least at present, no one has declared a counter-claim. He sent a pair of ****_alkesh_** **to conduct a survey more than a year ago; this recording is from them."**

More than a year. Zoe knew the goa'uld's standard 'year' was very close to that of Earth's. Which meant that those alkesh had been surveying Earth _before_ Apophis had come through the gate and set off the chain of events that resulted in the SGC of today. "What-" she forced out in the barest whisper.

" **What for?"** he asked softly, returning to her side, smiling down at her frozen expression. **"** **Since Apophis claimed a number of planets, he had to prioritize and he could not do that without information. I believe he has chosen to assert control over the others first as Earth is likely to require rather more time and attention to subdue. It shall be interesting to see if he succeeds in taming it or if he gives up and wipes it clean."**

 _More than 5 and a half billion people_. Zoe didn't know the exact population of Earth right now; over 5.5 billion was close enough.

" **Or..."**

She tore her gaze from her home and looked at him.

" **I could stop him."**

Zoe stared. She stepped backwards, knowing even as she did that she'd given it away. She thought of her sister Isabella, somewhere in Africa, pouring her heart and soul into her work as a nurse with _Médecins Sans Frontières_. She thought of the toddler and her parents who lived next door to her apartment in Colorado Springs. She thought of all the people she'd met as she travelled, on every continent except Antarctica. She heard herself speak as if from a thousand miles away. "I can't."

He stepped forward, relentlessly invading her space and he grasped her chin in his hand, his nails digging into the skin along her jaw and his gaze locked onto hers. **"** **Tell me where Egeria hid it and I will stop Apophis."**

She couldn't look away even as tears blurred her vision. "No." She reached for Egeria, cried and pleaded, beat metaphorical fists against the suffocating silence. Zoe begged for Egeria to wake, to answer, to _not leave her alone to face this._ " _No!_ "

Heru'ur pushed her backwards, against the wall. **"** _ **Tell me,**_ **"** he hissed, his eyes flashing as he glared at her.

Zoe had noted from the start Heru'ur's tendency to decorate walls with weapons. Right now, she could see a dagger to her right and behind her, digging into the small of her back was… something. Too scared, too angry to stop and think, she slipped her left hand – her dominant hand – behind her and grabbed for the dagger with her right. As she anticipated, Heru'ur lashed out a split second later, squeezing her wrist until the bones grated and the dagger clattered to the floor.

In that moment, his attention was on the obvious threat. When Zoe brought out her left hand and flung the small star-knife into his throat, he went down hard.

.

.

.

Then the jaffa shot her with a zat'nik'tel.


End file.
